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Interstitial: Pass Through Fire
The First Day After the events on Calor, Valkyrie Team takes a moment to rest and clean up as the Vici heads back to Erathis, with their new shipmates River, Dr. Reinhold, and Finnea. A conference is called with the team, Noora, and Kevin and RSA Senator Natalia Wake. The Senator thanks everyone for their help in stopping the assassination of Elder Einona, saying that Einona has pledged what's left of Calor's Bastion to the RSA when she becomes the next High Elder. Some of the Bastion that was loyal to Cadmael left the planet shortly after the Norisian Covenant fleet attacked. Einona also passed along information about the base of the pyramid left when the Ardaithian ship detached. According to Dr. Reinhold's research team, the large chasm in the base had been emitting a continuous spout of humid air into the atmosphere, and plant life has begun to spring up around the pyramid's base. The remnants of the pyramid appear to be more active than what they were before, and they'll continue to study it. As to the Senator's end of the deal (releasing Belinda and Justina from prison), she is only able to grant the release of Belinda, as Justina has escaped from prison and disappeared. The team asks what happened, but the Senator is unable to tell them what happened, currently. The Senator then indirectly agrees to relay what information she has on Justina during a 'previously scheduled' group spa day when the team returns to Erathis. Noora then congratulates everyone on a job well done, and tells them that due to the engine troubles they're going light on the engine. So they have three days to relax before they will reach Erathis. The team is then free to spend the next few days doing what they want. Felicity goes to give Dr. Enae a pamphlet from Eolas. Dr. Enae is surprised to see that Felicity is into religion, but Felicity emphasizes it's all about the search for knowledge. It's an uncomfortable interaction, but Enae promises to look over it later. The team then goes to see Jeff in the Armory. Findall asks if he knows about the Justina thing, and Jeff gets upset. He's worried about her and doesn't know where she is, but he hopes she's okay. Findall also asks about making his staff collapsible, and Jeff offers to see what he can do. They all then head over to Eloy's lab to talk with him. He's very excited to talk about how the armor pendant and the shield bracelet worked during the mission, which nobody really used, but Findall managed to convince him that they did. Findall then wanted some tracking devices and a pyrotechnics kit. Felicity asks for a belt for elemental diffusion and making her cloak vanta black. Sebastian wants some more exploding arrows for his Very Cross Bow. Eloy starts to get upset that his tech isn't up to par, but he's excited to keep working and make things better. Findall wanders back to the engine room with Frola and Finwick. He tries to give Frola a little booklet of Findall Coupons, in a show of friendship, but she's not very receptive. Finwick steps up and gets the Coupons, and Findall tries to show off his new magic with some illusory sparks. He feels a similar warm feeling in his chest as the sparks are getting absorbed into the engine core, and an alarm starts to go off. Frola starts freaking out and Findall continues to produce sparks, causing the engine to overload and the ship's power to go out. Finwick ends up with the Coupon booklet. While that was happening, Rose goes to visit Finnea and Enae in the med bay. Finnea is hooked up to life support on one of the med tables, and Enae says she's somewhat stable but still unconscious. Rose goes over to try some healing on Finnea, and senses some sort of intangible tether between Finnea and something else she's unable to identify. Rose calls Felicity into the med bay to try and help. Felicity is also unable to figure out what Finnea is afflicted with, but sticks around in the med bay. The power then goes off, from Findall's shenanigans, and Enae jumps up to try and keep Finnea alive with chest compressions. Rose and Felicity's magic is unable to affect her, blocked by some kind of outside force. Rose, Felicity, and Enae begin a Remove Curse ritual, with Felicity calling in a favor with Eolas that he ignores, and Rose praying for help and guidance. The ritual fails, and Finnea begins to fade. Rose and Felicity try the ritual again to save Finnea, with Felicity giving Rose a pep talk and Rose addressing Elayma more directly, pleading that she'll do anything. She feels the warm hand of Elayma on her shoulder, and another cold hand on her other shoulder, and her normally yellow, magic glow turns purple and severs the tether holding onto Finnea, saving her life. The team collects in the med bay, confronting Findall about the power outage. Felicity, Findall, and Sebastian then decide to go back to the engine room to see if they can turn the engine back on. Immediately upon entering the engine room, Frola is up in arms about keeping Findall out and away from the engine core. Frola is going to vent the extra energy, while Felicity is picking a fight with her. Finwick comes to sort out the conflict, and inadvertently shades Findall before they leave the room. Sebastian is in the lounge playing fetch with Frightful, keeping tabs on River. They talk about her history as a hitwoman, which helped her put herself through school to become a xenoarchaeologist, specializing in how different cultures built their ideologies and customs around the Ardaithian technology scattered around the known systems. Sebastian tries to trick River into staying in Felicity's room, but it doesn't work. They talk about trust, and they mutually agree that trust is a leap of faith. Findall goes to sleep, upset at the day's misadventures. Felicity goes to her room and finds that it's locked, so she goes through Rose's room and sees that River had changed the lock as a prank. As she goes to head back to Rose's room, Eolas pays her a visit. He offers her a black book with golden runes, in exchange for killing Finnea and a kid she is about to meet in the next few days. Felicity refuses upfront, but Eolas leaves the book with her. Felicity gives the book to Rose to hang onto. Rose finds herself in Andlat's crypt again, with Andlat eating an apple. He wants to check in on her after what happened with Finnea, but Rose is very resistant to the visit. Andlat tells her that she's tougher than she thinks she is, and that she holds herself back. He explains that death is part of life, and there's no need to fear death because it's just the opposite side of the coin. He also says that she'll be seeing more of him soon. Sebastian wakes up in the middle of the night to some rustling and clanking. When he turns on the lights, his room is covered in vines and leaves and Frightful is caught up in the vines. He cuts Frightful out, and the vines grow back. After casting Speak with Plants, the plant reminds him that the plant came from the Arboretum. Sebastian asks the plant to only grow in his room after giving it some water, and the plant retracts into a fannypack with the purple flower growing in it. He promises to find it some light and goes back to sleep. The Second Day In the morning, everyone gets up at their own paces. The plant is still in Sebastian's pouch, and he goes to find it some light. Felicity sleeps late in River's room after sleeping on the floor, but heads back to her own room when she wakes up. Rose didn't sleep well but gets up to go to breakfast, which is interrupted when Illiana comes to chat and awkwardly flirt with her. Findall sleeps in, too. Findall goes to find River to try and get some sneak training. River agrees, because she was going to work with Cecil too. She challenges them to try and sneak into the engine room and steal something from Frola or Finwick, and Findall manages to get the Coupon book from Finwick's pocket. But when he gets back, Cecil already has the money from River, who tries to reassure him to keep working at it. Findall then spends the rest of the day sneaking around and taking depression naps. Felicity and Rose get Korra to help them look over the book. Rose and Korra find out the book contains eldritch invocations and knowledge, written in celestial, and has an aura of energy around it. They take it back to Felicity. Both of them have a conversation about death, and Rose mentions being visited by Andlat. Felicity tells Rose about the offer Eolas made, and they come to an agreement that killing people is bad. Noora interrupts the conversation, handing over a package to Rose. Inside is a letter from Ellie, along with a gift: a little yellow pot with sun decorations made from a sword blade, some soil, and some seeds. Written on the pot is "Pass through fire." Rose then goes to find Finnea, who was looking to thank Rose for saving her life. Noora says the last time she saw Finnea was in Kevin's office, but when Rose gets there she only finds Kevin sitting at his desk. Kevin confides in Rose that he's nervous that his father, who was in the Simulation with the group, was apparently active again. He's worried now that because he's getting so close to the Covenant again that he'll get lumped with Belinda, Finnea, his father, and other Covenant or ex-Covenant members after he worked so hard to get away from that sentiment. Rose assures him that he's earned his spot, that he's different. Kevin is mostly assured, but still a little worried, and sends Rose to where Finnea went. Findall gets sent to Dr. Enae's office for a check-up after the events on Calor. Dr. Enae is interested to see if his body has recovered and wanted to check in with a few tests. During the check-up, Findall convolutedly informs her about the construct inside the base of the Pyramid of the Ascendant and the red orb of energy that he interacted with and absorbed. He offhandedly mentions hearing Cadmael's voice in his head, but is so nonchalant about it that Dr. Enae doesn't register it as anything bad. She sends Findall on his way, and on the way out the door he bumps into Jenviel, who is itching to play a prank. Felicity and Sebastian are sent to Nwa's map room to discuss the Cartographer maps. When they enter, they find Nwa talking with Cecil and their conversation abruptly ends. Felicity presses both of them to know what they're talking about, but Nwa sends Cecil on his way and sticks up for him. Cecil had apparently been having nightmares and is having issues coping with what happened in Hargo a few months ago. The conversation moves to the Cartographers, and Nwa's discovery that the maps layer over each other and reveal more information placed together. This affirms the assumption that the Covenant is looking for something, and the Alliance will need the Cartographers' information. Felicity and Sebastian take their leave, but Jenviel and Findall manage to catch Sebastian and bring him into their plan. Rose then finds Finnea up on the observation deck, wrapped in a blanket and staring out the window. Finnea has 2 years of missing time, and the last thing she remembers is working in the High Elder's office. Rose comforts her after Finnea gets upset learning that she had hurt people while being controlled. The two exchange a hug after Finnea expresses her thanks to Rose for saving her life. They discuss religion for a minute before Finnea heads to the makeshift temple in the ship. Rose stays behind to look out the window at the nebula the ship is passing by. Sebastian, Findall, and Jenviel are holed up in Jenviel's office discussing what to do for their prank. After some brainstorming they decide to send everyone fake letters from Dr. Enae asking them to go to her office for a check-up. They also send Frola a special note, of Dr. Enae confessing her love. Felicity ends up eavesdropping on a private conversation between Illiana and Karina. The two were discussing things like feeling they weren't needed on the ship or missing their friend Ellie, but mostly were talking about Illiana's huge crush on Rose. The group is then summoned to Eloy's lab for their upgrades. Everyone receives an earpiece with a private group channel and a bracer device called the Gauntlet. He also passes out everyone's requested upgrades, and takes a few more requests. Findall is then sent to Jeff's armory to get his new magnetic staff. At this point in the day, Sebastian, Findall, and Jenviel put their plan into action. The crew is gathered outside Dr. Enae's office, frustrated that it's taking so long. Felicity takes this opportunity to try out her new magic mist upgrade and inadvertently heals everyone, dispersing most of the crowd. Frola stays behind, and tears into Dr. Enae for sending a fake love letter to her. Of course, Dr. Enae has no idea what she's talking about and exasperated tries to exxplain. The prank has mixed results and everyone heads back to work or goes to bed. Day Three The next day, Jeff and Eloy want to test out the groups new upgrades. They make space up in the cargo hold for everyone to test things out, and everything seems to work out pretty well. While trying out her Elemental Diffuser Belt, Felicity's fireball spell sets off the fire alarms and locks down the room. The door breaks, making the room completely locked down for a little over an hour, where Findall talks with Rose about his feelings of inadequacy and fear of using magic. The door gets fixed, and a full crew meeting is called up in the cockpit. Up in the cockpit, Noora and Nelzol play a distress signal they received on a broad channel with somebody asking for help. Screams and explosions could be heard in the background between bouts of static. Noora then puts it to a shipwide vote to disobey orders to return to Erathis or go investigate the distress signal. The crew majority votes to go to the signal, with some dissenters, and the Vici changes course to the forest world Pulkra.